For the second year in a row, the award for Best Sound at the Show
goes to Accent Music Technology Ltd., makers of the Nola Concert Grand
Reference Gold ($197,000 per pair). On the third day of the gathering,
legendary loudspeaker designer Carl Marchisotto, assisted by Audio
Research electronics and a United Home Audio Phase 11 ($28,000) master
tape player, put on the sonic equivalent of a Fourth of July light
show. Voices and chords appeared all over the place: Michael Jackson
called from offstage way over there; Santana toted his wailing guitar
from deep right-center to main microphone; a member of an African
chorus hovered spookily over Paul Simon’s shoulder; previously unheard
saxophone toots emerged from deep in the mix of "Black Magic Woman";
Stevie Ray Vaughn’s guitar chords exploded and then wafted
overhead. The whole time, my eyes were as wide as Little Joe’s
watching Shane unload a six-shooter.

A million thanks to Uncle Carl for disdaining audiophile-approved lute
and bodhran recordings. The Nola system played everyday music, with
volume cranked up to 11. Amazingly, Carl and I were able to converse
without shouting because the distortion was so low. We discussed how
the imaging aspects of high fidelity have fallen behind close-up
clarity as a goal of loudspeaker design. Minimonitors are winning
market share, but is the thrill of hi-fi lost in the process? I recall
hearing a pair of Quad ESL63s for the first time forty years ago. A
jazz ensemble was standing behind, in front of and alongside the
speakers. I was smitten for life and vowed then and there to "see"
concerts at home. Over the years, however, I seem to have lost the
way. As advanced digital processing churns out more and more
information, the imagination is left to idle. Musical events are less
viscerally entertaining than before. Imaging has shrunk to a highly
revealing but flattened panorama.

Brave-hearted Mr. Marchisotto is out to change the tide. Not only his
Concert Grand Reference Gold but all of the speakers in the Nola line
project a high degree of holography. While some dimensionality is
common to all good loudspeakers, the CGRG goes a lot further by
constructing a sonic diorama. If the Holy Grail of hi-fi is the
perception of a three-dimensional performance, Nola speakers assuage
the mind’s eye better than any others at this time.

CES 2014by Paul Bolin

"While I was in the room copies of masters of The Beatles’ White Album
were playing, and "Ob La Di Ob La Da" and "Dear Prudence" gave me the
unmistakable sensation of sitting in the control room and watching the
Fab Four play on the other side of the glass. The resolution of
McCartney’s Rickenbacker bass guitar on "Prudence" alone was the stuff
of which musical dreams are made. Eerie and spectacular in its
immediacy. As good as the original Concert Grands were, Carl
Marchisotto has made incremental yet plainly noticeable improvements
to this outstanding, and unquestionably world-class, speaker system."

CES 2014 Show ReportBy Chris Martens | Jan 21st, 2014

Best of Show

Best Sound (cost no object):

Nola Concert Grand Reference Gold loudspeakers, Audio Research amplification, and
United Home Audio analog (tape) source components. This system could
-- and at times did -- offer believable glimpses of the real thing,
and who could ask for more?

CES 2014 Show Reportby Jim Hannon

"The UHA Phase 11 OPS tape deck was the most realistic
front-end I heard, and when combined with the awesome Nola Concert
Grand Reference Gold loudspeakers, Audio Research tube electronics,
and Nordost Odin cables, the sound was sublime."